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Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Earlier in the year we visited the “Hidden Valley” below Pendle Hill, in very poor weather, to recce a route and to find the grave of Jeppe The Knave. We did little more on that day, saving the remainder of the route for better weather. Better weather we couldn’t have had than that provided last Saturday when Pauline led her first Rucksack Club walk. In glorious bright, if not warm, sunshine we left Whalley on way to Jeppe’s grave and beyond.

Leaving Whalley (i)

Leaving Whalley (ii)

South towards Winter Hill

We found Jeppe’s grave and the Trig Point above it on Wiswell Moor as well as the other three Trigs on the route around Sabden on day when conditions were so good there could be no excuse for getting lost, at all, in complete contrast to most of our more recent visits to this part of Lancashire.

Churn Clough Reservoir

Pond at Sabden Fold farm

Pauline thought the four Trig Points would provide a framework for the route and that Jeppe The Knave’s grave would provide something a little unusual as well as bit of local history. Pauline wasn’t wrong on either count and then one day last week I realised we would pass another site of historical significance. En route to the second Trig Point on Stang Top Moor we would walk passed White Hough Outdoor Centre where, 40 years ago this year, the Fell Runners Association was founded.

Little did we know that we would also pass and, indeed, had passed on any number of occasions another spot with a very strong link to fell running. Making way along the maze of footpaths to Stand Top Moor we approached a green painted hut, named “Stans Cabin”.

Stan’s Cabin – 1935

As we neared the cabin John Richardson revealed the “Stan” to whom the cabin had belonged was none other than the late Stan Bradshaw, a legendary fell runner and former member of both Clayton Harriers and the Rucksack Club. This was his outdoor base for long runs over the local, and not so local, hills and it probably isn’t possible to overstate Stan’s contribution to fell running. The Times obituary refers to him as the “father figure of fell running” while the Lancashire Telegraph provides a few more local details.